Education - Class

Question 1

What is the percentage of students getting 5+ if their disadvantaged and if their not?

Answer 1

Disadvantaged: 36.7%
Other: 64.7%

Question 2

What do Penny and Francis (2010) argue?

Answer 2

Social class is the strongest predictor of educational achievement in the UK

Question 3

Has the class gap changed at all in the last 10 years?

Answer 3

Not by much

Question 4

What is the evidence that poverty is linked to educational underachievement?

Answer 4

90% of failing schools are in deprived areas
The class gap in achievement grows wider as children get older
2015 almost a 30% difference in achieving 5A* - C GCSEs between disadvantaged and other students
Before compulsory education 50% of WC stayed in full time education 16+, 90% of MC

Question 5

What was a popular theory in the 1960s to explain the class achievement gap?

Answer 5

Material factors

Question 6

What does material deprivation mean?

Answer 6

Lack of available resources, such as adequate income and housing

Question 7

How can material deprivation affect achievement?

Answer 7

Waldfogel and Washbrook (2010) housing - overcrowding means difficult to do homework, cold/damp causes ill health and absenteeism, temporary education so moving schools
Diet and health - bad diets mean higher sickness, tiredness and difficulty concentrating
Educational resources - internet, books, school trips, uniform (self-esteem)

Question 8

What is cultural deprivation?

Answer 8

Underachievement due to socialisation beyond the school

Question 9

What was J.W.B Douglas (1964) theory on cultural deprivation?

Answer 9

Middle class children received more attention in their early years providing a foundation for high attainment (based on questionnaires to over 5000 parents)

Question 10

What are the two external factors argued for the class gap?

Answer 10

Material factors

Cultural explanations

Question 11

What is Barry Sugarman (1970) theory?

Answer 11

Working class subculture is fatalistic, present-time orientated and concerned with immediate gratification placing WC kids at a disadvantage
MC subculture is future-time orientated and deferred gratification stance which equates examination success

Question 12

What is the contemporary support for Douglas’ theory?

Answer 12

See and Davies (2012) echo Douglas - lack of parental involvement and low expectations hinder children. MC parents visit school frequently and encourage them to stay in education for as long as possible

Question 13

What is the contemporary support for Sugarman’s theory?

Answer 13

Sodha and Margo (2010) similar attitudes found by Sugarman 40 years after

Question 14

What does Basil Bernstein (1971) say about the importance of language in the class gap?

Answer 14

Most MC children have been socialised in restricted and elaborated codes, WC children are limited to restricted code
As schools use the elaborated code, WC children are at a disadvantage

Question 15

What does Pierre Bourdieu (1984) argue about the importance of cultural capital to the class gap?

Answer 15

MC children are socialised into the ‘habitus’ school values and teaches so they have an advantage over WC children, who’s culture is not valued

Question 16

What does Alice Sullivan (2001) say about cultural capital?

Answer 16

She agrees with Bourdieu as her questionnaires of 465 students in 4 schools concluded with the pupil with the most cultural capital being the children of graduates

Question 17

What are the problems with cultural explanations?

Answer 17

Research evidence (validity and reliability)
Attitudes second to material factors?
Higher education might not be viable
Postmodernism - is class still relevant?

Question 18

What are the internal factors for class achievement?

Answer 18

Teacher perceptions
Curriculum 
Hidden curriculum
Organisation of teaching and learning
Student identities and subculture

Question 19

Who argues teacher perceptions dictated outcomes for class?

Answer 19

Becker (1971)

Question 20

What was Becker (1971)s theory?

Answer 20

Interviews with 60 high school teachers discovered they have an ‘ideal pupil’ that others were judged against, and middle class students tended to fit the model better
There were also stereotypes about working class children being badly behaved

Question 21

How is the national curriculum linked to class disparity of grades?

Answer 21

Made by the government (mainly middle class) and what they believe is important
Lack of representation or poor representation of people from lower classes
Subjects offered to students may differ
Cultural capital in tests

Question 22

What does Wheeler et al (2019) say about curriculum?

Answer 22

Much less sports both in school and outside school are offered to children of lower classes

Question 23

What did Cooper and Dunne (2000) find in their study?

Answer 23

Some children are struggling in tests due to a lack of cultural capital and therefore understanding or connecting to the questions compared with middle class children

Question 24

What evidence (apart from Cooper and Dunne) is there for testing struggles for WC?

Answer 24

Economic and Social Research Council found in a sample of 10-11 year olds that there is a social class effect which means some WC don’t show competences they have

Question 25

How are people trying to help support curriculum problems for class?

Answer 25

Teachers provide a ‘diverse’ curriculum (gender and ethnicity)
October 2020 Education Select Committee was taking evidence on white pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds doing worse
Ofsted use ‘cultural capital’

Question 26

What did Gillborn and Youdell (2001) find out about the organisation of teaching and learning?

Answer 26

Stereotypical notions of students used to stream kids, and teachers see WC (and black) pupils as less likely to succeed
This means they are only entered into lower tier GCSEs, and don’t have the same knowledge as those from higher tiers

Question 27

What did Keddie find about the organisation of teaching and learning?

Answer 27

Teachers teach differently in higher streams and lower streams, and gave higher stream children more and different types of knowledge to help them succeed

Question 28

What does Prof. Diane Reay say about the curriculum?

Answer 28

The historical purpose of education was to control the working class so a curriculum which doesn’t work for white WC is currently used as it was modified from the old one

Question 29

In what ways do the organisation of teaching and learning effecting class in schools?

Answer 29

Streaming children (warming up, cooling down) leading to the self-fulfilling prophecy
Restricted access to the curriculum
Peer groups forming anti and pro school subcultures depending on where they go

Question 30

How does the hidden curriculum affect class achievement?

Answer 30

Uniform - WC might not be able to afford it, lowers self-esteem, not go into school, etc.
Prizes - MC can do more work outside school (tutoring, HW) whilst WC kids might not be able to (pro and anti school)

Question 31

What did Lacey (1970) find in his study of a middle class grammar school?

Answer 31

Streams differentiate the students but cause polarisation and the streams to go to extremes of anti and pro school culture

Question 32

Who agreed with Lacey’s results?

Answer 32

Ball (1981)

Question 33

What did Mac an Ghaill (1994) find in his study?

Answer 33

He found two pro-school subcultures: Academic Achievers from skilled manual labour WC backgrounds who focused in English, maths, sciences
New Enterprisers who studied business and computing with school-industry links

Question 34

What does Archer et al (2010) say about class and achievement?

Answer 34

Working class pupils felt they’d have to change how they presented to be successful
‘Nike’ styles were disapproved of by the schools but gave pupils symbolic capital and self-worth